| Abstract: | This article is concerned with the power of language to shapeand confirm social work’s identity and to control itsessential direction and task. Social work has perennially concerneditself with communication but paid surprisingly little attentionto the more abstract concept of language. The authors tracethe changing language used throughout social work’s UKhistory, placing this into socio-political and socio-economiccontext and analysing the discourses thus created and promoted.We identify three broad periods in the development of socialwork, characterized as the moral enterprise, the therapeuticenterprise and the managerial enterprise. We conclude by connectingthis discussion with some key challenges, issues and dilemmascurrently facing social work in the criminal justice and communitycare arenas, highlighting the language and discourse of punishment,risk management, consumerism and the market economy. The articleconcludes by arguing that social work must reclaim the languageof its activity as it engages with the challenges to its identity. |
